"Why not! It was the one character -- you know, I was a comic book fan when I was a kid and I always loved the Hulk," IGN.com quoted him as saying during a visit to the New Mexico set of The Avengers. "When The Incredible Hulk, that show, came on, I would not miss that. And so if I was going to find myself in that world, this would be the guy that I would be most interested in doing. To make a very short answer long: Yeah, I'd love to have him do his own movie."

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It's a sentiment the Oscar-nominated actor repeated earlier this week at the world premiere of the Joss Whedon-directed film. "I'm hoping we're going to see a Hulk movie," Ruffalo told E! Online. "Why don't we start an online petition for a Hulk movie?"

He's the third actor to play Bruce Banner in as many films, and the first of those to portray both the scientist and his monstrous alter-ego. Eric Bana starred in Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk, which grossed $245 million worldwide, followed by Edward Norton in Lous Letterier's 2008 The Incredible Hulk, which raked in $263 million. Norton was widely rumored to have feuded with Marvel over the final edit of the movie, leading the studio to announce in 2010 that it would recast the role in The Avengers with "an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members."

Ruffalo said he contacted Norton before accepting the role. "I actually called Ed because I'm friends with Ed and wanted it to be copacetic," he told IGN. "I didn't want to step on his feet. He bequeathed it to me, and we had a joke that it's our generation's Hamlet. We're all gonna get a crack at it.